“I Am a United Methodist Christian Because… Salvation is Only the Beginning of the Journey” 
Week #1 of a five-week sermon series 
Pikeville UMC 
September 2, 2018

2 Peter 1: 3-11 (New Century Version)

³Jesus has the power of God, by which he has given us everything we need to live and to serve God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus called us by his glory and goodness.  ⁴ Through these he gave us the very great and precious promises. With these gifts you can share in being like God, and the world will not ruin you with its evil desires. 

⁵ Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; ⁶and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; ⁷and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love.  ⁸If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful and productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  ⁹ But anyone who does not have these things cannot see clearly. He is blind and has forgotten that he was made clean from his past sins.  ¹⁰My brothers and sisters, try hard to be certain that you really are called and chosen by God. If you do all these things, you will never fall.  ¹¹And you will be given a very great welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Introduce series

One of my final courses in seminary was a class entitled, “Significant Persons in Christian Social Ethics.”  The idea behind the class was for each student to select a Christian leader whose life we would study using as much material as we could gather.  We would then, as a class, look at a variety of life’s ethical challenges and discuss how our subjects might approach them given what we had learned.  

I chose William Willimon.

Will Willimon is a retired bishop of The United Methodist Church, but at that time he was Dean of the Chapel at the Duke University.  For the purposes of our time together today, we shall not hold that egregious character flaw against him.  Upon his retirement, he returned to Duke and teaches there today.

Willimon is one of the most influential authors for American pastors having written over 60 books as well as countless articles published in journals and magazines.  The joke is that he does not have an unpublished thought.  

One of his books that I purchased for my class was entitled Why I Am a United Methodist.  The disappointing thing for me is that early in the book, Willimon admits that the primary reason for his being a United Methodist is because he was born one.  He was born, raised and nurtured as a Methodist.  Many of you here can relate to that.  There are many multi-generational members of this church.

Like many others, however, I am a United Methodist by choice.  For me, Bishop Willimon’s book made me stop and think about why I chose the United Methodist Church.

I became a Christian at the age of 16.  While, in the first six or seven years of my life I was in the church virtually every time the door opened.  In the next nine or ten years, I was rarely in church.  After making my profession of faith, I visited many different churches with friends and family over the next three years.  During that time, I experienced a variety of worship styles, approaches to the life of faith and theological perspectives.  While I appreciated what I had experienced, I began to feel a desire to have a church to call home.  Over time, I gravitated to The United Methodist Christian because of a unique combination of factors that spoke to me.   

If it helps, think of it this way…. This is a combination lock.  This particular lock has numbers from 0-39.  Mathematically speaking, that means there are 64,000 different combinations of the correct three numbers required to open this lock.  

I view the life of the Christian faith a lot like a combination lock.  Throughout the month of September, I invite you to explore with me the unique combination of factors that go into being United Methodist and how they might unlock a deeper understanding of the life of a disciple.  

There are two very important things that I need to say before we begin.  The first is this, “There is no number 50 on this lock.”  I want it clearly understood that I am not suggesting that all roads lead to God.  The scriptures that Christians understand to be the inspired word of God call me to preach that salvation is found in the name of Jesus Christ and his name alone.

I hear people say things like, “Well, it really doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.”  That’s a foolish notion.  There are people who sincerely believe the world is flat.  Yet their belief – no matter how sincere – doesn’t make it so. 

The gospel of Jesus Christ makes certain exclusive claims.  What one believes does matter. 

The second thing that I need to say is that not every lock’s combination is the same.  There are – according to the World Christian Encyclopedia – more than 34,000 different Christian groups/denominations or something akin a denomination in the world today.  I am not suggesting, for even a moment, that United Methodists are the ONLY Christians.  

I know there are those branches of the Christian family who tend to think they have either a privileged place or the only place in the heart of God.  One does not find that sentiment within United Methodism.  In fact, few things could be more contrary to a United Methodist understanding of the Christian life.  We are inherently an ecumenical people, but it is okay to say there is something unique about being a United Methodist Christian; something worthy of celebrating.

During this series you will hear me speak of some things that differentiate United Methodists from other Christian traditions but please do not hear that as being disrespectful of other Christian traditions.  If you believe – at any time – that I have done so, please speak with me. 

Introduction

I am always drawn to the Apostle Peter.  It could be that he was a blue-collar guy (a fisherman by vocation) and that’s a background to which I can relate.  Or it could be that Peter operates under a “ready – fire – aim” approach when it comes to speaking; the type to engage his mouth before he has consulted his brain.  I’ve certainly been guilty of that more than a few times in my life.

Peter doesn’t have the education or the gift with words that the Apostle Paul has, but what he does have is an amazing journey with Jesus.  

He was among the first disciples called and was the only one of them to walk upon water.  He was the first to confess that Jesus is the Christ.  Along with James and John, Peter went with Jesus up on the Mount of Transfiguration and witnessed that incredible sight of Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah.  

However, he was also quite capable of blowing it in stunning ways.  It seems that with almost every holy moment Peter experienced was undercut by his mouth or immaturity.  While he was the only one to walk on water, he sank because he took his eyes off Jesus.  While he was the first to confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was almost immediately rebuked by Jesus and compared to Satan because he failed to understand the nature of Jesus’ mission.  Yes, he witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus, but then he turned around and blew it by suggesting they put the mission on hold in order to build a monument.  He got so much right and yet got so much wrong.  I can relate to that.

And I can especially relate to his biggest failure.  His three-fold denial of knowing Jesus in the courtyard of Caiphias the High Priest once Jesus had been arrested reminds me of the times when I have not always lived up to the call of being a disciple of Jesus.  I can relate to that.

After the resurrection of Jesus, Peter, having been restored by Jesus, boldly proclaims that Jesus is Lord on the Day of Pentecost, before thousands of people. But even after this he still makes mistakes.  Later he was confronted by Paul because of his reluctance to be seen with Gentiles by Jewish believers.  I relate to Peter.  Many of us can.  

By the time of his death, however, Peter was a wise and mature believer.  A leader in God’s Church.  The vision of Jesus that Peter would be the rock upon which he would build His Church had become a reality.  Peter’s wisdom and maturity came through hard lessons, difficult moments and by the grace of God which picked him up when he fell and gave him the strength to go on.  Now, in his final days, he shares his wisdom and maturity – not with a particular church (such as Paul writing to the Church at Thessalonica or at Corinth), but to believers in general who are coming face to face with false teaching. 

In this passage, Peter speaks of the intentional pursuit of a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.  What I appreciate about Peter the most, I suppose, is how throughout his life, he continues to mature and develop in his faith.  His example invites us to do the same.    

Many of us in the Christian family speak openly of the need to make a profession of faith in Jesus; the need to be born again; the need to be saved, and I absolutely agree with that.  Please hear me clearly, we need to repent of our sins, receive the grace Jesus freely offers and follow him, but that is only the beginning of our journey.  

In our Methodist tradition, what follows next is a concept referred to as “sanctification.”  Wesley called for Methodists to be intentional in their pursuit of God’s holiness and to take the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount seriously when Jesus said in Matthew 5: 48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”   

Of all of Wesley’s teachings and writings – nothing has been more misunderstood.

Sanctification, also sometimes referred to as “Christian perfection,” is the “perfecting” of our hearts, intentions and attitudes.  It does not imply Christians are exempt from ignorance, making mistakes or being tempted.  Sanctification is the continuing process of having our faith refined, our love for God strengthened and the removing of the desire to sin.  As we grow in the maturity of our faith, we realize there is so much more of God than we ever dreamed possible and that He wants us to have a deeper relationship with Him.  As we are being sanctified, we release things, habits and practices in our lives that are not pleasing to God so that God can fill those very places with more of Himself.    

It is a call to a mature faith – very much in keeping with Peter’s instructions we read this morning.

Peter’s words teach us two things:  first, God has given us everything we need to live and to serve God, but the second lesson is that it will require some effort on our part.

Peter notes that his readers have “faith” – it is their foundation.  They’re not to stop there however.  They are to add to it.  In Peter’s formula for discipleship the equation is:  faith + goodness + knowledge + self-control + perseverance + godliness + brotherly kindness + love = an effective and productive disciple. 

One of life’s basic axioms is this:  we you get out of it what we are willing to put into it.  Yes, God’s grace to us is without merit, but if we fail to respond to God’s grace then what have we truly learned?  How can we truly be an asset for the kingdom of God if we are unwilling to engage and grow?  A vital disciple of Jesus wants to grow in her or his faith.  Good enough isn’t good enough.  I would not want a “good enough” lawyer to represent me or a “good enough” surgeon to operate on me.  I want one who desires to know as much as they can and do what they do as well as they can. 

A one-time encounter with God’s holy nature was never intended to be the end of the journey.  To smile and say, “Well, we’ve made our professions of faith so we’re all good now.” is not a full biblical understanding of discipleship.  

There is so much of God to experience…so much to see and do in the Kingdom of God, and our tradition embraces that.  Salvation is only the beginning of the story.

In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us pray….